White Ivy by Susie Yang

 

Title:  White Ivy

Author: Susie Yang

Read by:  Emily Woo Zeller

Publisher: Simon & Shuster Audio

Length: Approximately 12 hours and 51 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Shuster Audio.  Thank-you! 

 White Ivy is an epic American story of one woman’s quest to live the American dream.  Ivy Lin appears to be a sweet and quiet young Chinese girl.  She has a special something that draws people to her.  Her grandmother uses her as a cover to steal things at yard sales and thrift stores.  Ivy learns from her how to become a great thief herself.  She has one best friend, Roux Roman, who has a complicated home life as well.  In middle school, she develops a crush on Gideon Speyer.  Gideon is the son of a senator and lives a gilded blue-blooded life that Ivy envies. After she lies to her parents to attend a party at Gideon’s, they send her to visit relatives in China for the summer.  When she returns, she discovers her parents have bought a house in another state.  Her relationship with both Gideon and Roux is gone.

 As an adult, Ivy returns to Boston as a teacher.  She runs into Sylvia Speyer, Gideon’s sister, and soon is dating Gideon.  As their relationship progresses, Ivy wonders, what does she want out of life?  Can she achieve her American dream?  What lengths will she take to ensure this?

 Ivy is a complicated anti-hero that reminded me strongly of Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind or Becky Sharpe from Vanity Fair.  I wanted to like her as she is the heroine and root for her story, but she is an unlikeable person.  I did admire her determination. 

 I really liked the overall story and was surprised by how things went in the story.  It really drew me in.  It reminded me of a modern day An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser or The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.  These are two of my favorite novels.  I really like the story of a person going to any length to achieve the American Dream and pull themselves up into a higher class.  I will be reading more works by author Susie Yang.

 Besides Ivy’s social climbing, this book was a great coming of age novel.  Ivy’s relationship with her mother and her grandmother is complicated.  I really enjoyed the growth of these relationships throughout the novel.

 SPOILER ALERT

For any that read this book – what did you think about this ending?   I thought it was interesting that Ivy had her “happy” ending unlike the endings for Clyde Griffiths of An American Tragedy or Lily Bart of The House of Mirth.  Is Ivy’s ending really happy though?

SPOILER END

 I read this book in May for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with the #diversiteareadingchallenge hosted by @booksnparchment on Instagram.   White Ivy was also a Read with Jenna selection.

 Emily Woo Zellner was a wonderful narrator and I thought of her as the voice of Ivy.  It was a compelling audiobook to listen to and I couldn’t stop listening to it!

 Favorite Quote:

"All her life, she had sought something she couldn't name. Love? Wealth? Beauty? But none of those things were exactly right. What she sought was peace. The peace of having something no one could take away from you."

 “That was the thing about getting too much happiness at once. Without time to adjust, the pain of not having it suddenly became unbearable.”

 “In the same way water trickles into even the tiniest cracks between boulders, her personality had formed into crooked shapes around the hard structure of her Chinese upbringing.”

 Overall, White Ivy is a compelling story with a complicated heroine trying to live the American Dream. 

A Burning by Megha Majumdar

I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about A Burning by Megha Majumdar for the past year, so I recommended it for the Rogue Book Club pick for April.  We read it and met to discuss it a few weeks ago.  We met in person for the first time in forever as everyone is now fully vaccinated.  I was the sole person not complete with the series as everyone else is a teacher or nurse in the club and was higher up on the list!

 A terrorist attack on a train in India has killed over one hundred people.  The police focus in on Jivan, a Muslim girl that lives in the slums after she posts an ill-thought-out remark on Facebook.  As Jivan is arrested, her story is told through her viewpoint and two other viewpoints - PT Sir and Lovely.  PT Sir was Jivan’s gym teacher but finds himself rising in a political party by helping to cause Jivan’s downfall.  Lovely is a hijra and dreams of becoming a Bollywood star.  Jivan was teaching her how to read and Lovely is her alibi.  If Lovely comes forward, how will that affect her career?  As the three lives intertwine, will the truth come out?

 I was not sure what a hijra was when I started this book and I had to look it up.  It’s “in the West, she would likely identify as a transgender woman, but in India she falls into a category of the gender ambiguous who earn a living by begging and giving blessings at weddings.” (From Chicago Review of Books).  I thought Lovely’s story was very intriguing as I had not previously read anything about hijra and how they function in Indian society.  It was also an interesting discussion point at our book club.  The story was choppy and not a happy one, but it was very interesting how the story set in a different country parallels what is happening in the United States currently.  We saw parallels both with the treatment of Transgender people and in the justice system. I read Just Mercy last year and I felt like the treatment of Jivan in this book was unfortunately the treatment that many people of color receive in the United States. 

 Favorite Quote:

“It is true that there is a lot about life that the law misses.”

 Overall, A Burning is a great read about justice and corruption in modern day India that parallels current events in the United States.

 Book Source:  Borrowed from the Kewaunee Public Library – Thank-you!

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare

What is the last book that you read that transported you to another part of the world?  Or a book that you can’t stop reading and also find yourself learning from?

The Girl with the Louding Voice is the August selection for the Rogue (AKA Flicks Book & Movie Club).  We finally had a socially distant outdoor meeting in July after not meeting since February.  We are trying to get back into our book club again with outdoor meetings as long as our good weather lasts.  This will be a great book to discuss!

Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl with big dreams.  She wants to continue in school and become a teacher.  Although her father promised her dying mother that he would ensure that Adunni is able to continue in school, he finds it more attractive to sell Adunni as a third bride to an old man.  After a tragedy, Adunni finds herself the servant of a wealthy, mean spirted woman with a drunken husband. Will Adunni be able to find her louding voice and her true path in life?

I loved how after Adunni found the Book of Nigerian Facts in her employers’ library, each chapter than started with an interesting fact about Nigeria.  I realized I am woefully ignorant about Nigeria and I found it fascinating to learn about this country. 

I was disturbed that even though it is illegal in Nigeria, polygamy and the marrying of child brides still happens.  Adunni was also sold to the wealthy woman in the large city of Lagos and was never paid for her hard work.  I found it very disturbing that this still happens in this day and age.  I loved Adduni’s spirit and how she was able to figure out and work towards a better life and dreams. 

The book is written with broken English to match how Adunni speaks.  I read this book quickly as I was very much taken by the story.

Favorite Quote:

“Adunni, you must do good for other peoples, even if you are not well, even if the whole world around you is not well.”

Overall, The Girl with the Louding Voice is an unforgettable coming of age story that explores keeping your spirit and dreams alive through difficult times.

Book Source:  Checked out from the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!